‘MPRF Hired Professional Killers in Gaur’

Dr Mathura Shrestha, a prominent human rights activist, visited Gaur a day after the carnage, in which 28 persons died. Dr Shrestha served as Health Minister in the post-1990 interim government. He attended a meeting of MPRF in Delhi and met also Chief of Janatantrik Mukti Morcha, Jaya Krishan Goit, a couple of times. Dr Shrestha out-rightly rejects Prachanda’s view of outlawing MPRF. He suggests that addressing the Madhesi problems and implementing the decisions taken by the SPA plus Maoists, thus far, help restore peace and democracy in this country. Dr Shrestha shares his opinion and recounts eyewitnesses’ count on the Gaur carnage with Puran P Bista and Ghanashyam Ojha of the Kathmandu Post.

Q: How do you recount the gory incident of Gaur after your recent visit?

Dr Mathura Shrestha: Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) had made an announcement through mikes five days ago for holding a public meeting in Gaur at 11 pm on last Wednesday. Madhesi Mukti Morcha (MMM) set up the stage for the carnage after it, too, decided to hold the public meeting on the same ground at the same time on the same day.

The locals feared of something. As a result, president Deo Padayar Gupta of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Rautahat branch, invited the MPRF and MMM cadres to attend the meeting on Wednesday morning at around 8:00 am.

But none of them attended the meeting. At around 10 am, rallies of both the parties began. Some of the participants in the rallies had come from adjoining VDCs. The rallies, organized by both the parties, met near the district court. The participants in the rallies waved, clapped their hands and welcomed each other’s rally, showing an understanding on the holding of Wednesday’s public meeting. The locals took this incident as a good gesture that MPRF would hold its meeting first, and then MMM would do so, on the same ground but at different time. Then, the Maoist rally passed through Gaur, while MPRF’s rally converted into a public meeting at the Rice Mill ground.

The ground is near the district court. First, the MPRF cadres dismantled the MMM stage built for the public meeting. A few MMM cadres present there were beaten up. These MMM cadres left the ground to inform their leaders of the incident. Chairing MPRF’s meeting was Ram Prasad Biswas. No sooner had Biswas taken his chair as a chief guest, than the MMM cadres entered the field and began to disrupt MPRF’s meeting. Then, from the southern and western sides, some people fired shots at MMM cadres. Later, some MPRF cadres fired from within the stage at MMM cadres.

Dr Shrestha: Within two minutes, over a dozen MMM cadres were killed. Then, the MPRF-hired professional killers chased the MMM cadres. Some of the MMM cadres not acquainted with Gaur entered into nearby houses for safety. They were dragged out of these houses and killed. Some of the MMM cadres were chased as far as eight kilometers and killed. Some of the dead bodies were buried in a water canal.

I was told by eyewitnesses that eight of the killers were local Nepalis and 25 others were Indians. The three locals are Balru, Hafij Mukhiya and Binda Hasin Sahani. The eyewitnesses recounted that “the police force could do nothing”. But local police contradicted this statement saying that “they blank-fired to stop the killings”. Some local people even claimed that Upendra Yadav was staying at the house next to Dr Tayab and the superintendent of police escorted him up to Barganiya near Nepal-India border.

What was heinous was that five of the women were raped in public. Two people caught their legs and other MPRF cadres raped them in public. Later their breasts were chopped off and burnt to deface their identity. Gagan Singh, Bhusan Singh, Baban and Guddu Jha were involved in raping and chopping-off-activities. Two local Muslim girls were taken away and their whereabouts are still unknown.

Q: Are these rapists local or Indian criminals?

Dr Shrestha: They should be local people because the local residents knew them well and everyone could pronounce their names clearly. Twelve of the MMM cadres were killed at Hajmonia, some 12 kilometers away from Gaur. They included three women and nine men.

Q: According to your assessment, what was the police force doing at that time?

Dr Shrestha: Police could do nothing when government offices were set on fire by the MPRF cadres some weeks ago. The police force has been unable to wipe the sign boards written Madesh Sarkar in government offices. What can you expect from them?

Secondly, you must understand that King Gynendra conducted municipality polls. All the political parties boycotted the polls except Kamal Thapa’s. And you must have learnt that the highest turn out in the country was at Gaur – almost 72 percent of the voters cast their votes in Gaur municipality polls. And Kamal Thapa’s candidate got 92 percent of the votes polled. Now you can think of the situation there. Recently, all the government offices have been set on fire. By whom?

A girl of late 20s raised a question. She asked me, “Dr Sahab, is political change meant for criminals or the people?” I was shocked to hear such a question from a girl who I think was forced to leave her studies. Then, I asked a few more questions. Her response was: “there is none who supports MPRF at Gaur and I do not know other places. But whatever MPRF wants, it happens here. We can do nothing in the presence of MPRF because of criminalization of politics, culture and religion”.

Until the restoration of democracy 1990, there had been a mafia group operating in Gaur. This mafia used to smuggle hashish, gold and idols, and traffic women. But the restoration of democracy led to an emergence of another mafia group. This group killed the leader of the Panchayat mafia in Janakpur. The locals say that the democratic parties have given this mafia group a political protection. Whenever they are arrested, the parties ask the police force to release them. The NC, UML and other political cadres feed and pay them. During the early 1990s, there had been clashes between these two mafia groups. Today, they have joined their hands and the dacoits across the border have also been working in tandem with these two mafia groups.

So, it looks that these groups have been very active in Gaur and its adjoining districts. The locals say that MPRF is a mere mask. These two mafia groups are active in the name of MPRF. Even human rights activists cannot release any report on these mafia leaders as they threaten to kill them.

Q: How could these mafias be hired by MPRF to the extent of butchering so many MMM cadres?

Dr Shrestha: MPRF hired professional killers. They paid them money. Eight of them were Nepali criminals and over 25 were Indian professional killers. I am talking about only those who fired gunshots. Today, the cost to hire the professional killer groups comes to 15 million rupees.

These killers are used during the elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states also. You do not have to campaign if you pay 15 million rupees to these professional killers. You win the elections. I was shocked to hear such stories from a girl who was forced to leave her studies by these local mafias.

I was further told that a girl cannot get married to a man of her or her family’s choice in Gaur. These mafias come and ask the girl to get married to their choice. If she refuses, she is threatened to be taken to a nearby mango tree and raped to be left a prostitute. Such incidents are common in Gaur. These mafias have been very active since King Gyanendra’s regime conducted municipal elections. Now they are being used by MPRF.

These are the tips of the iceberg. In fact Gaur is ruled by criminals and the SPA government, until recently, considered them its allies. Apart from eight Nepalis and 25 Indian professional killers, some MPRF cadres hit with cleft bamboo sticks. Each MMM cadre killed and injured had deep cuts in their heads. You see a cleft bamboo stick is as sharp as khukuri. And you can’t survive if you are hit with a cleft bamboo stick on your head. They used other sharp weapons too. All the hospitalized had head injuries. One MMM cadre, who left the hospital after a doctor advised her to leave, was later caught and hit by a cleft bamboo stick. Now that girl is on her death bed. I was shocked to learn that MPRF hired professional killers to kill unarmed MMM cadres.

Q: Whom do you blame for the carnage?

Dr Shrestha: What I have been advocating for the past several months is that we should not have opposed MPRF-organized protest programs. The main reason that let the Maoists oppose the MPRF organized protest movement is that the SPA gave up its stance on addressing the Madhesi problems. First, the SPA gave up its stance on federalism in the interim constitution. Second, it gave up its stance on proportional representation. Third, it raised the issue of public opinion and later it gave it up. All this disappointed the Madhesis and other ethnic groups in the hill and mountain.

Now we must realize that democracy did generate hope but doubts are undermining our hope for democracy. I see this is the emergence of people’s resentment. It is there in Madhes, hill and mountain. The movement in Madhes was not started by MPRF but by Nepal Sadhbhawana Party (Anandi Devi). MPRF shot into the fame only.

I agree there are politicians in MPRF. I met Upendra Yadav personally and informed him of SPA’s stance on the demands. I advised him to give up the political demands since the SPA government was preparing to address his demands. Secondly, I told him to use peace as a weapon to raise the demands. His response was “we have been put behind bars, now all our cadres are out of our control”, adding that “it will be a peaceful movement.” He had assured me that he would even hold talks with the janjati groups, which he did not do so. Let us not talk of him now. He is not the right kind of politician. He was just a village level leader though he may claim himself a national leader.

Second, the primary concern is that the second revolt (April uprising, even if you call it a people’s movement) brought the eight parties into a single platform. If these leaders of eight parties continue with leg-pulling politics, then the Gaur carnage is the beginning. These leaders take decisions but fail to implement them. What is the reason behind the failure to implement or delay in implementing and blaming one another? This is not the way of playing politics.

Q: But the SPA continues to insist on arms registration before the formation of eight-party government. Isn’t it?

Dr Shrestha: Arms registration is not a big deal, nor is it the problem. The Nepali Congress did raise arms against the establishment, not once but twice. If we add the incident of Okhaldhunga, it raised arms thrice. When the NC reached an agreement with the then government, it did not surrender all the weapons; so did the Marxists after the Jhapa killing. The Marxist and NC did not surrender all the weapons they had in their possession.

So, history clearly tells us that registration of weapons is not the primary concern. The Maoists have agreed to join mainstream politics. Why can’t the SPA be accommodative now? The Gaur carnage is an outcome of Maoist pride and the anarchy let loose in the country. There are several counter-Maoist groups unleashing anarchy. Unless the eight parties come together and build trust among themselves, the country will continue to reel under violence.

63 thoughts on “‘MPRF Hired Professional Killers in Gaur’”

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it seems by trying to play the scare game of US embassy employee assassination by Prachanda he reduced his chances of entering into governement soon. It seems his tactics has back fired and has created few more enemies of his than any new additional friends. Tyesai pani Nepali ma ukhan cha…”Bandar dherai bhato bhayo bhane geda chepera marcha bhanne…” katai testai ta hoina…why to guys think???

Maoists weapons swept by bagmati river and MJF collected those weapons and killed maoists.

Prachanda’s Claim:

I found a clue of the prachanda’s claim about royalist killing americans. Yea, not other than Neil Horning, he will be killed and royalist will accuse maoists.

New David Hicks “Neil Horning”:
Mr Neil Horning, are you another David Hicks or trying to be Daniel Pearl? No matter who you are or are tying to be, people like you sucks. You guys are good for nothing. Go to Iraq and afganisthan where your fellow soldiers are killing innocent people or visit Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay.

The Gaur incident is truly a horrendous incident in the historical chronology of mass killings over the decade in Nepal. The barbaric mass killings by the Maoists in various occasions during their so called people’s war including Bandermudhe (Madhi), the Palace Massacre are yet other such killings which will be remembered as black days in the history of Nepal.

The Gaur incident is occurred when the Maoists has already joined the interim parliament and they are about to join the interim government. Those killed in the incidents are young cadres of the Maoist Young Communist League (YCL) which is formed by the Maoists as a tool to confront other parties during the constituent assembly election. It will be relevant to look back the formation and activities of YCL before we go in to the subject. The YCL is formed simultaneously with the management of Maoist combatants and arms. Most members of the YCL are either those combatants whom the Maoists didn’t want to confine in to the cantonments, or those child combatants who are not eligible to register as combatants. The Maoists also recruited large number of cadres during ceasefire period by giving assurances that they will ultimately be inducted in to the national army, which are also inducted as YCL member. They are claimed to be unarmed, however, they are given extensive training of unarmed combat, and large number of them with the background of militants can operate all kinds of small arms and improvised explosives. Most of the commanders carry unregistered small arms as well.

Over the last several months, these YCL cadres are employed to occupy the houses of various so called landlords and royalists who are blacklisted by the Maoists party, kidnapping the people, forcefully collecting the donations, extorting money, vandalizing the opponents and most importantly confronting with other political parties. Their main targets various Madhesi organizations that are raising their voice for Madheshi freedom. They are also involved in various social activities to give some positive gestures such as traffic control, cleaning cities and so on. The Maoists has also formed a front in Terai to wipe out various Madhesi organizations that are active in Terai. Most of the activities by the Maoists party in general and YCL in particular are above the rules of law and they are openly challenging the present government. The Maoists party and YCL are free to do anything due to kind courtesy of Home Minister. In many occasions Home Minister intervened while the security forces tried to control the wrong doing of Maoists.

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The local administration in Gaur virtually couldn’t do anything to prevent the confrontation between Madhesi fprum and Maoists front and YCL. In fact the Madhesi Forum planned a mass meeting in Gaur long ago and their leader Upendra Yadav was supposed to address the meeting. With a view to disrupt the Forum’s program, the Maoists also planned mass meeting in same venue by openly challenging the Forum. The Maoists mobilized large number of YCL cadres from Makwanpur, Bara, Parsa and Rautahat to show the muscles. Confrontation was imminent as both parties gathered with all sorts of arms. The weak part of local administration was that they couldn’t visualize the consequences thereby couldn’t impose preventive measures. Since the Maoists are getting all sorts of privilege and leverage from Home Minister the local administration couldn’t dare to challenge Maoists for stopping their mass meeting in the same venue. They could have imposed restrictions or curfew which they didn’t do for some reason. The ultimate result was such which was much unexpected. Those who are victims of Gaur incidents are newly recruited cadres of YCL and member of various labour organizations but all of them are affiliated to Maoist party.

In essence, the Maoists party and their organization YCL and Maoist affiliated Front must take main responsibility of Gaur incident as they planned their mass meeting in Gaur to challenge and confront with the Forum. Had there been low turn out from Forum side the victims would have been other way round (in the Forum side). The second blame obviously goes to Forum as they killed and mutilated mass in inhumane manner which is certainly a crime against humanity. The local administration including police forces will also have to take some responsibility as they couldn’t take preventive actions to curve the violence. The present Home Minister and the Maoists leadership are the biggest culprits as their policy and action paved the way to happen incident like Gaur. The Home Minister is becoming so kind to Maoists party that he is acting like one of the aide to Maoist leader Prachanda and the Maoist Party is protecting him as their own cadre. The reason why terai uprising is escalating day by day is that the government has not been able to bring the Madhesi leaders on the table for dialogue. One of the preconditions of Madhesis are they demand some one to take responsibility of killing of about 40 people (almost double the number of those killed in Jana-Andolan II) in Terai uprising. Madhesi people think that it is the Home Minister who should take responsibility of all the losses of life and properties due to excessive use force and he should resign on moral ground. But, the Maoist leadership is blocking Home Minister to resign even when the leaders from Nepali Congress itself are also demanding his resignation. This has hampered to build an environment conducive to initiate dialogue; as a result terai problem is worsening day by day. As a matter of fact the first fuel poured in terai uprising was by the Maoist in Lahan when they shot dead one of the activists of Madhesi forum. In Gaur also eyewitness claims that first bullet was fired by the Maoists.

The attitude of Maoists is not favouring to establish peaceful environment to hold election in near future. The terror of Maoist weapons has not stopped even after they joined interim parliament. The incomplete arms and combatants management by UNMIN is yet another key factor which has created score of problems even inside the parliament. Manhandling of politicians, businessmen and ordinary people are key indicators how the Maoists have transformed themselves during transition period. The main motive behind the formation of organizations like YCL, Morcha etc is faulty that they will create problems rather than solving any problem.

First of all, it is high time that the Home Minister should resign which will pave the way to initiate dialogue with Madhis organizations. Second of all if the eight parties (SPAM) are not serious for all inclusive democracy to accommodate all (including madhesis, janajati, indigenous people, Dalit, minorities and even royalist) then more violence and bloodshed is inevitable and peace in Nepal will not be achievable, at least not in faceable future. They all are Nepalese and they all deserve space in inclusive democracy.

The above is rebuttal for Dr. Mathura’s claim. See this artcile by P.B. Khatri

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) today condemned the threat against nearly a dozen journalists by Maoist cadres in Itahari, Sunsari district.

In a press statement, the FNJ said it was seriously concerned over the threat against journalists Salik Ram Pandey, Arjun Sharma, Amar Khadka, Shekhar Adhikari, Krishna Bhattrai, Chetan Dhamala, Santosh Yadav and Anil Adhikari by Maoist cadres including Ritesh Shrestha over a news report published in a local newspaper, Itahari Weekly.

At a programme organised in Itahari yesterday to discuss the ways to check vulgar shows in local dance bars, Maoist cadres had threatened to “finish off” the reporters for publishing the news report which they said had criticised their party.

“FNJ condemns such an irresponsible act of the workers of a political party which is poised to take up the responsibility of governance by joining the government. While disputes could be sorted out legally or through negotiation such a reaction is a direct attack on the free press,” the release issued by FNJ general secretary Mahendra Bista stated.

Calling for immediate investigation into the incident and reveal their official position regarding the case, the federation urged the Maoists to commit not to repeat such acts in future.

The media body also demanded that the government create an environment whereby journalist could be safe and be able to enjoy press freedom.

If you are suggesting that this dr is an investigative expert, i have nothing to say and i am sorry. However, i do have sympathy for the victims of the heinous crime in gaur. But sympathy does not mean you can blame who ever you want without evidence.

“Dr. Shresthan is not yelling for fire when there isn’t; he is not calling wolf when there aren’t wolves.”

Yes there are wolves and fire but proper evidence need to be provided before you judge who started the fire and who the wolves are.

“The facts are there. The fact is that 28 some people like you and your sisters are brutally butchered.”

And this is the only kown and established fact so far. If the dr’s word could be taken as fact why did the government set up a committee to investigate the crime. The governmetn could have just asked the dr for all the facts.

“On newspaper, look, newspaper does have responsibly to its reader and society. Journalists are not high school dropouts; they do go through years of schooling and training, although some of their stories do seem like that; they are a professional news agency. If you don’t like Kantipur publication, then don’t support the paper, don’t subscribe to it, there are other paper in the market. Human being by nature is bias, and humans run newspapers. You have a bias view and some time newspaper has bias views.
This site may belong to Wagle, but he is not stopping you expresses your views here is he? So please grow up!! ”

I don’t know what you are saying on the above lines. I never said that there was a lack of freedom of speech in Nepal. And yes sometimes (with some papers it is all the time) papers do have biased views but it is also our responsibility to say that they have biased views. All over the world some medias to have biased views. But unlike you, it is not taken as a normal, natural and a moral way to run media houses. No where in the world is it accepted as an ethical way of running media.

What freedom of speech you are talking about? Yesterday government warned to take persmission to organize the mass rally in their democracy. That is targeted for anti-SPAM ideology only nothing more than that. If they are serious about the people then they should have warned the maoist not to abduct, punish, disturb others. The abducation and punishment is occuring in the heart of the capital in Baneswor “Surya Carpet Building” and no security forces till now tried to atleast visit the building. Still no words are coming in the parliament. Is this the government who is looking for the peace and democracy in Nepal??? I totally doubt..Sack the Sitaula…

Devil got the soul of SPA. All that happens to them or is directed at them is violation and condemable act whereas a common man cannot earn his livlihood or is threatened then its normal thing in abnormal time. Is this what it is all about?

People speak about freedom this and that but who is fooling who? 8 party should be held accountable and crucified at the altar for bringing selectivitism, neopotism and unaccountability galore. Have no mercy on them

I am trying to make heads or tails of this. The mainstream news (MSN) is worthless. But I am finding nothing from any other of many decent world news sources about what is going on in Nepal which I’ve been trying to find out since I heard of the internet and business being shut down in Nepal by “industrialists” protesting “Maoists”. I’ve heard only cursorily of Maoists, characterized as troublemakers (to be expected), no explanation, nothing in-depth. Do the ‘Maoists’ call themselves ‘Maoists’? I have gathered a very incomplete background here (better!) and some of what is in dispute, or being disputed, not neccesarily by genuine people (some definitely come off as trolls/shills).

A corrupt democracy is nothing new. It’s not democracy that doesn’t work, corruption does not work. Also, in the American revolution, American democracy was made possible by war among other things. Pacifism, while always preferred, can be blind to reality, even pathological, depending on the circumstances; Ghandi’s beauty notwithstanding.

Another ‘insanity’, though perhaps it’s only human to deny overwhelming unpleasantries: there are powerful forces in America (for example) that have used the government, it’s military, ‘intelligence’ departments and media over the decades to interfere with movements in America and other countries through covert means, undermining genuine, positive grassroots movements and governments in quite sophisticated, subtle and insideous ways, through propaganda, psyops (psychological operations), ‘special ops’ and infiltration, maligning and marginalizing democratic people’s movements, causing them to appear to be violent and unreasonable “terrorists” when they are not, and always funding, supporting and creating ‘resistance’ and ‘counter-resistance’ factions and puppet governments that represent their interests, that represent a self-serving “free market” capitalist “competitive market” economy, which generally translates: “bully economy”. This is the facts, it is well-documented.

What exactly is the difference between “terrorists” and revolutionaries? Between “terrorism” and “war”? Is it the difference between an organized government-sanctioned uniformed military, and “armed resistance”? Those forces in power in America have terrorized America with their “War on Terror” and are holding Iraqis and American soldiers hostage for a big rip-off Oil contract, and they are terrifying both Americans and Iranians with the threat of attacking Iran now. For Oil. But they say for “national security” and “democracy”.

The MSN is compromised by corporate ownership, it has not covered the Oil Law. It has been ‘very important business’ being avidly & busily pushed on Iraq throughout the occupation, but only now that it apears to be ‘all set’ do we here word one about the repugnant Iraqi oil “Deal”.

Polls consistently show that the large majority of Americans do not support the occupation of Iraq, the large majority of Iraqis do not support American occupation, while the President and American MSN consistently speak in terms of being there to “help” Iraq, to support “democracy” in Iraq, and to protect “national security” while in reality this military occupation has fostered tremendous negative sentiment toward the U.S. internationally, compromising “national security” far more than any “terrorists” ever did.

The President and MSN continue to characterize Iraqis as lazy ungrateful welfare cases desperately clinging to American ‘assistance’ and the Bush Administration continues to marginalize majority sentiment by characterizing the large majority of Americans who want U.S. forces out of Iraq as irrational fringe extremist “Democrats”.

This is not to condemn democracy or discourage hope, only to discourage illusions and denial of the very sophisticated, subtle, and insideous things the corrupt are capable of.

Background
Madhesh is also known as Terai in Nepal. The Flat, fertile southern belt of Nepal, 20-30km wide and stretching east to west is often considered as Tera or Madhesh. It covers 20% of land in Nepal. Madhesh is a term geven to areas of the Nepali outer Terai or to the outer Terai as a whole inhabited by the peoples who are racially, culturally, and linguistically related to people as the Indian side of the border.These peoples are referred to or refer to themselves as a Madhesi or Madheshi, Madesi, Mahgadesi and Deshwaali.The term “Madhesi”: encompass many different ethnic, linguistic and religious groups that inhabit the terai region. Madhesh is commonly believed to have been the kingdom of the legendary King Janak and as such, the Madhesi people are believed to put be part of the oldest culture in Nepal.
Madhesi are an important segment of the population in Nepal. According to the population census 2001 based on mother tongue for village Development committees (VBCs), the Madhesi population was 6781111.5. If one were to go by this figure, the Madhesis formed 29.2% of the total population of Nepal in 2009. However Madhesi political leaders, scholars, and activists have long questioned these figures. They claim that the Madhesis form 40-50% of the total population in Nepal today.

The Origin of the word ” Madhesh” and “Terai”
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The word “Madesh” may be derived from Sanskrit word ‘Madhya Desh’ meaning ‘country in the middle’ or magadh, it was so much powerful state after the fall of the Brijisangh. Some of the historians show its origin in ‘Matsya desh’ meaning ‘contry of fish’

And etmologically, the word Madhesi is the adjectival form of Madhesh, which is usuall y refers to the Terai or Madhesh. While many theories have been developed about the origin of the word, the most popular one is that this land was the central kingdom of the mythical Hindu king Janak.

And the word “Terai” is believed to be derived from Persian, which meant damp or moist land. But some historians are of the view that the word Terai emerges from the lower part of mountain. The Terai or Madhesh region begins at the Indian border and includes the northernmost part of the flat, intensively formed Gangetic plain called the outer Terai. This is culturally an axtension of northern India with Hindi, Awadhi, Bhojpuri anf Maithili spoken more than the Nepali, however it was annexed to Nepal by conquest and by treaty eith the British. The Terai or Madhesh ends and the Hills begin at a higher range of foothills called the Mahabharat range.

Geographical History Of Madhesh.

Mythologically, King Janak was the emperor of Mithila kingdom (eastern Madhesh) whose daughter Sita got married to Ram of Ayodhya (northern UP-India). The capital of Mithila was Janakpur which even at present is called by the same name. Lord Ram got married to goddess Sita in a “swayamvar”(self chosen groom) ceremony in King Janak’s palace. Today, Janakpur is an important city in the eastern Madhesh.
2500 years ago Madhesh or the Nepalese Terai was a part of the greatest empire of ancient India – the Magadha Empire with Patliputra as its capital. The empire is supposed to have included almost all of present day Nepal along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Bangladesh except southern tip of India.
During this period Lord Buddha was also born in Lumbini of Awadh region, and hence can be regarded as the greatest Madheshi of all time. Lord Buddha helped simplify the existing faith and belief of Magadha empire which for 800 years is called Hindu and found a new religion of his own name “Buddha dharma” (in English – Buddhism).
There however has been little attempt at finding the historical facts about this region and the archeologists of Nepal have rather resorted to connecting the archeological facts to Nepal rather than the grand history of “Bharatvarsha” to which all of South Asia once belonged.
The history between the downfall of Magadha and arrival of Islam is very hazy. However a site in the Bara district called Simraungarh entails a fact that the dynasty of Tirhut or Sen existed and flourished in this region before rise of Islam, and art and architecture of completely separate and vivid from the Kathmandu architecture based on which new government buildings in Terai have been built sadly. There has been no attempt at renovating the historical architecture of Madhesh. Little is known about other archeological sites apart from Lumbini and Simraungarh that may exist. Islam is Madhesh is as old as in Northern India. And possibly Madhesh was a part of Mughal Empire though rest of Nepal wasn’t. This is proven by the fact that Muslims in Madhesh are also the natives of this region and they speak the same language as their Hindu counterparts. And no historical Muslim population is found elsewhere in Nepal.
Madhesh was a part of Mughal’s Hindustan just as today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh or India was.
Cultural History Of Madhesh.
The Madhesi culture is one of the oldest cultuer’s in the world.The Madhesi people have their own distinct culture, which is one of the oldest cultures in region. According to the Ramayana, the ruler of Mithila, King Janak, a Madhesi by present standards, had established the kingdom of Mithila with its capital in present-day Janakpur long before the Shah rulers had even entered Nepal. His daughter, Sita is still worshipped by Hindus as the ideal of womanhood. The Madhesi are the only people of Nepal other than the Newars to have a long history of civilized and cultured existence with opulent cities and culture since early eras. mostly the Madhesis are related by marriage to Indians across the border. Generally people speaking Maithili, Bhojpuri and Hindi and resemble Indians in appearance are considered as Madheshis. Their traditional man dress is dhoti and kurta and women dress is Sarees and blouse. Their main religion is Hinduism.

Religion and Language of Madhesh.

There is a great cultural diversity in the Madhesh. Its cultural diversity can be seen in the fact that three distinct religious groups—Hindu, Muslim and Jain—live there. Caste Hindus are the dominant social group in the Madhesh. The social structure of Madhesi caste Hindus is very similar to that of Hindus from the hills.
Madheshi people speak various central and eastern dialects of Hindi language as their mother tongue, example: Maithili – 33%, Bhojpuri – 25%, Awadhi (including tharu awadhi) – 18% and rest speak Rajbanshi, Bengali, Santhal and other minor languages.
The above mentioned languages or dialects are regional i.e. they are concentrated in a region for example – Maithili in the east, Bhojpuri in the central part and Awadhi in the western region of the Terai. However it would be foolish to demarcate boundary lines to separate these languages. These languages or dialects flow into one another and the dialects lying at the edges of their influence region can be categorized as either of the neighboring dialects, for example the local language of Rautahat can be classified as Bhojpuri as well as Maithili, for Lumbini as well the dialect can be referred to as Awadhi as well as Bhojpuri.
The language of Madhesh or the dialects of Hindi are to a large extent mutually intelligible.
The non-regional languages spoken in Madhesh is primarily Hindi (Urdu for Muslims) with Nepali now spoken due to its imposition on these people for few decades. English is comprehensible to educated class and Marwadi, Punjabi, Newari etc are spoken by the non-native communities living in the Terai.
Several languages such as Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, Hindi, Nepali and Urdu are spoken by the Madhesi people. Maithili is the most commonly used language[1]. Hindi and Urdu are spoken as a vernacular all over the region but less as native.

Literature of Madhesh.
Madheshi people have been forced and purposely made unaware of the great literary culture they belong to by the ruling nepali class. They are historically linked to the literary works of Sant Kabir, Laxmi kant jha,Bhikari Thakur, Pandit Vidyapati, Kalidas, Soordas, Mirza Ghalib, etc who are regarded as the pillars of Hindi (and Urdu to some extent). Sadly the new generation can hardly recite poems of Kabir and Vidyapati but are fluent in reciting poems of Nepali language, which is actually a foreign culture and language to Madheshis or Deshwaalis.
From among the natives of Terai, undoubtedly, Udit Narayan Jha has acquired greatest fame in the field of singing. He is noted for his soothing voice quality that suits all the Deshwaali languages. Apart from countless Bollywood songs, he’s sung in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Awadhi as well as Nepali.

Madhesh was a part of Mithilanchaal.

• The most important thing regarding Madheshis that anyone must remember is that Madhesh region of Nepal is not a sovereign and independent of itself. Let’s take a look. Physically it is a part of Nepal currently but ethnically it is a part of Mithilanchal and was physically too a part of Mithilanchal in past. Mithilanchal is a place where most of the people speak Maithili and infact is a mithila region that ranges from Terai parts of Nepal to northern parts of India, the capital of which is Janakpur which is located in Nepal where King Janak ruled and his palace locates here. So the aspirations of people of madhesh are more directed towards the people of mithilanchal where they have family ties and infact the motherland where people share same culture, customs and brotherhood. Like People born in Rukum have ties with people born in Dolpa culturally, politically and racially even if they don’t know each other but they understand people by culture and they take no time in recognizing each others. Obviously It is a natural phenomenon supported by science and similarly one who is the aborigine of Janakpur and one who is the aborigine of Darbhanga (a city in India in northern Bihar where the great poet Vidya pati was born and is a part of Mithilanchal) and both being the part of same anchal i.e. “Mithilanchal” no one can deny the fact that Mithilanchal is our home (both people living in Janakpur and Darbhanga) by birth like hilly region for pahadis. Its therefore common the internal migration taking place in Mithilanchal (eg. Some migrating from Darbhanga to Janakpur and some migrating from Janakpur to Darbhanga for their easiness and they see it migrating in their own home). Mithilanchal is a territory that occupies both the parts of India and Nepal. Infact Pahadi people want to be identified themselves by the name of Lord Sita and Gautam Buddha in the world but after recognizing they are the part of Terai and Mithilanchal they show their their outrage to madheshi people and infact become jealous at us. Its their judgement that the people of Terai are Indians and they say it because their only source of nationalism is anti-indianism . I don’t think there is any wrong in that because that is a truth because we had been Indians for so long and only before 238 years we physically became a part of Nepal. So there is no need to feel bad for Madheshis if somebody calls them Indian because it is Madheshis right to be called Indians. If people want to hear we calling Indians ourselves, we must tell them and clear them our identity and thus fight for that identity regarding the truth. And remember Truth always wins the battle whatever be the consequences and if not we will prove it so. We are mentally and physically prepared for that though we prefer to resolve the problem through table talk and common consensus rather than violence. But it has now been clear among all madheshis that they are not going to live under such inequality and injustice and with very negligible participation in state of affairs despite the madheshis accounting for half the population .Now we have already known that we are deciding our future and our way of living.
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And the Pahadis are fool to think that we Madheshis have forget our motherland , our culture and our social structure and accommodated in theirs because of their feudalistic power and threats under a controlled territory. Pahadis can not tolerate the fact of ties that Madheshis have to Mithilanchal of India. Besides they are always afraid of the future if whole the people of Mithilanchal comes and conquer the power in Nepal and they remain with nothing at all. But they must evaluate the consequences if that really does happen. And till now they have been successful to keep us under control knowing our weaknesses and fooling us in the name of Hinduism. They know Madheshis enjoy simple ,innocent and hard-working life with mutual understanding and brotherhood and thus they take advantage of our innocence and remain in power and utilizing all the resources that madheshis have (75% of revenue generated from terai and madheshi people) for their benefits alone. The reason they praise our valued Deepawali, Holi and chhat festival because they are well aware of our simple ,happy and brotherly life. Infact some kind of jeolosy is always there in their mind and they are aware that once we madheshis are given opportunity in state affairs we always tend to march above them politically and culturally.

Recent development of Madhesh.

Recently a movement called the Madhesi movement began in the Tarai, demanding an end to discrimination against the Madhesi people. The different parties involved in the movement range from student wings of the ruling parties to the armed Tarai Janatantrik Morcha (Tarai Populist Front) and thus the various demands of each group are different. In general, the unarmed groups are calling for a federal political system, whereas the armed rebels demand a separate state.
Both the first president of Republic of Nepal – Ram Baran Yadav, and the first vice president- Parmanand Jha are Madheshis. During the oath taking ceremony, vice president Jha read his oath in Hindi. The constitution requires the oath to be taken in Nepali. Even though vice president Jha’s mother tongue is Maithili, he resorted to Hindi. This led to a widespread agitation throughout the country[2][3][4]. Various political parties, organization and intellectuals have criticized the act of Jha. Jha later tried to justify his use of Hindi claiming that it is understandable to all residents in Terai districts, who speak different languages.

Analysis and conclusion.
After the unification, there is very little evidence of any of the Shah or Rana rulers trying to address the Madhesis. On the contrary, to appease the powerful families, army personnel from conquered principalities (mainly Kaski, Parbat, Lamjung and Kathmandu) were appointed as governors of the various parts of the Tarai, forcing the Madhesi into lives as perpetual second-class citizens.
The “one nation, one culture” policy implemented by King Mahendra during his absolute rule did not only create a setback to cultures other than Khas,including Newar, Tamang, Magar, Kirat, Madhesi culture but also created an atmosphere in which their language was considered as foreign or anti-national. . A Madhesi like Udit Narayan Jha (who later went on to be one of the most successful Bollywood playback singers) was rejected as being unfit for singing in Radio Nepal (the state-controlled and then only radio station of Nepal), while Khas people from Darjeeling, politically a part of India, were provided privileged status for their patriotic songs depicting the life in the hills. Madhesis were also barred from joining the armed forces of Nepal.
But nowadays if Madhes was a part of Nepal, then Madhesi have been given chance to prove their patriotism in Nepali Army,the most patriotic institution of the country.
Roshan kumar jha (Rautahat, Gaur)
Now Kathmandu school of law, Bhaktapur,Nepal
L.L.B 1styear